Evidence of meeting #79 for Finance in the 41st Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was need.
A video is available from Parliament.
October 18th, 2012 / 4:20 p.m.
Chief Executive and National President, Financial Executives International Canada
It's been a very long time since the tax act has been reviewed. It comes down to the need to eliminate, consolidate, and streamline.
NDP
Guy Caron NDP Rimouski-Neigette—Témiscouata—Les Basques, QC
My question was, in your view, what is making the tax code right now so complicated? What is the cause of it?
Chief Executive and National President, Financial Executives International Canada
The biggest cause is it hasn't been reviewed for a very long time. There are sections that need to eliminate measures that no longer achieve desired policy objectives. You need to consolidate measures that have grown so many arms they can be scaled back, for example, the number of capital cost allowance, CCA, classes. You need to streamline the Income Tax Act and reorganize sections all over the place.
NDP
Guy Caron NDP Rimouski-Neigette—Témiscouata—Les Basques, QC
I understand what you're saying. What I'm saying is, over time, what is making it so complicated? We're talking about the lack of review, but the lack of review is not adding things to the tax code.
Chief Executive and National President, Financial Executives International Canada
Actually, each subsequent budget makes it fatter and fatter and fatter, and nobody goes back and trims out the tree.
NDP
Guy Caron NDP Rimouski-Neigette—Témiscouata—Les Basques, QC
You say that we should consider increasing taxes on tobacco and alcohol. I understand why, but aren't you concerned that this will lead to contraband? Indeed, it has been shown that there is a relationship between taxes, on tobacco in particular, and the amount of contraband.
Chief Executive and National President, Financial Executives International Canada
We just said it would be appropriate to fund incremental improvements to health care through increases in taxes. As for the impact on other ways, I'm sure the government has ways to police those appropriately.
Conservative
Conservative
Dave Van Kesteren Conservative Chatham-Kent—Essex, ON
Thank you, Chair.
Thank you all for coming here this afternoon.
Mr. Knight, I had an interesting conversation with the association of manufacturers. They came into my office today and we discussed the very thing you're talking about. I can tell you, one of the problems with the school system is that when I was a kid, when I went to high school, there was no encouragement to go into the crafts or the trades. It was all geared towards—and if you weren't going to university, well, there was something wrong with you. There was a real problem when we were growing up. I don't know if we've corrected that yet.
One of the things that we talked about was the fact that we need to get together. We need to stop trying to exist in this country as this group and that group. We need to understand, and I think we all agree with that; we're all part of this together.
Would you endorse streamlining kids?
President and Chief Executive Officer, Association of Canadian Community Colleges
Streaming or streamlining?
President and Chief Executive Officer, Association of Canadian Community Colleges
In my own experience, that is dysfunctional. We do not know what capacities individuals have. I have a good friend who was told he should not expect to go to university, and he's a very successful lawyer. They tried to stream him, but his parents wouldn't allow it. I think we don't know the potential of people when they're young. They grow and mature and become learners where they weren't before.
Streaming at a young age concerns me greatly. Obviously, post-high school, that's a different metric. I think there are more opportunities, and to some extent people self-stream.
Conservative
Dave Van Kesteren Conservative Chatham-Kent—Essex, ON
You look at countries that are successful, and I'm thinking of Germany in particular. They have a system in place where they look at the aptitudes of children and they can see that this person has great ability in this area and that area. You don't think that's an area we should at least talk about?
President and Chief Executive Officer, Association of Canadian Community Colleges
Well, in fact, in Germany they have a good laddering program. You can move between a more academic program and a more applied program. You can go back and forth. I think that's one of the brilliant features of the German system. We're not so good at that. Once you're in a stream, it's hard to get out of it.
We need to provide those laddering opportunities. We're working at it, but there's some distance to go.
Conservative
Dave Van Kesteren Conservative Chatham-Kent—Essex, ON
I appreciate you coming and making suggestions, and that's what we've asked you to do. I would suggest what we need to do, what I'm doing, is to engage organizations like the manufacturers and the extraction industry, whatever the organization is, to start to work together. I think we need to really do that, to talk to the provinces. As Mr. Adler says, it's so difficult to make a suggestion that's uniform across the country, but we've got to start figuring out a way to do that.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Association of Canadian Community Colleges
In Germany, if you're very skilled at what you do on the trade side, you are a master craftsman. In Canada you are a journeyman. We have a real problem with British class language that we have to change.
Conservative
Dave Van Kesteren Conservative Chatham-Kent—Essex, ON
It's time to have that dialogue.
I want to shift over to the organization for—let me get my glasses on, and I shouldn't be having to do this because this is obviously somewhat to my embarrassment—the Canadian Association of Community Health Centres. That is in Chatham—Kent. That's my riding. I've been there for six years and never heard of them.
Federal Coordinator, Canadian Association of Community Health Centres
Out of nowhere.
Conservative
Dave Van Kesteren Conservative Chatham-Kent—Essex, ON
The first thing I said was, “My goodness, I'd better find out about these guys”, so I went to the web page. You have to do something with that web page. It's bizarre. It doesn't tell us anything; it doesn't let us know where it is. So number one, you have to address that.
Obviously it's a federal program—
Conservative
Dave Van Kesteren Conservative Chatham-Kent—Essex, ON
When did you first start getting financing? When were you first funded?
Member of the Board, Canadian Association of Community Health Centres
Are you talking about community health centres themselves?
Our centre is one of the first ones in Canada. Centretown Community Health Centre was born in 1969, in a broom closet, for youth. We were addressing the needs of youth in the urban Ottawa core, and we were created over 40 years ago. It was slow in coming and then there was a big impetus, in Ontario particularly, to expand in the 1990s. Then in Ontario other primary care models came in. We've been around for a long time, but we're like the best-kept secret. Now there has been a flurry of activity in understanding what we do. More attention is being paid by governments to say this is working, especially because of our interprofessional model.
Conservative
Dave Van Kesteren Conservative Chatham-Kent—Essex, ON
They're not getting it from the web page and they're not getting it from their MPs, so I'd just like to make a suggestion to look at that, and whoever is working in my area, please contact me and let me know what you're doing.
Federal Coordinator, Canadian Association of Community Health Centres
I'm speaking at their AGM in just a couple of weeks, so I'll have them contact you.
